120 THE USES OF PLANTS. 



rhizome GALANGAL since 1870.* It is used chiefly 

 in Russia. 



IRIDACEJE. 



ORRIS-ROOT is the dried rhizome of Iris Germanica, 

 L., /. pallida, Lam., and /. Florentina, L., long used 

 in perfumery and in tooth-powder, having the odour 

 of violets. It is imported from Leghorn, Trieste and 

 Mogador.f 



SAFFRON, used in pharmacy only as a colouring 

 agent, but still used in Cornwall and elsewhere for 

 colouring cakes, consists of the stigmas of Crocus 

 sativus, L., a species unknown in a wild state. Its 

 cultivation in Essex, which gave a name to the town 

 of Saffron Walden, died out before 1768 ; but in 

 Cambridgeshire it seems to have lingered into the 

 present century. It is now grown in Spain and in 

 the French department of Loiret.J 



PALMACE^E. 



Areca Catechu, L., the ARECA-NUT, was added to 

 the Pharmacopoeia, as a taenifuge, in 1874. The 

 Areca Palm is a native of the East Indies, where its 

 small pear-shaped seeds are largely chewed with 

 lime and the leaves of the Betel Pepper (Piper Betle, 

 L.), and are therefore known as Betel Nuts. Its 

 charcoal is used as tooth-powder. 



Dcemonorops Draco, Martius, a Malayan Rattan 

 Palm, exudes from its fruits the dark-red resin known 



* ' Journ. Linn. Soc.' (Botany), xiii (1873), p. i ; ' Pharma- 

 cographia,' pp. 580-582. Bentley and Trimen, iv, pi. 271. 

 f Ibid., iv, pi. 273. 

 t Ibid., pi. 274. 

 Ibid., pi. 276. 



